Idealism, Inc.

Edward R. Stettinius Jr. might well have imagined himself back in the Secretary of State's office. As newsmen trooped into a press conference with him in a grey-carpeted suite in Manhattan's Savoy-Plaza, he was flanked by a three-man Government mission from Liberia. But this time he had a business deal to announce: a $1,000,000 partnership between U.S. financiers and the Negro republic.

The deal to develop Liberia by stimulating trade was a mixture of free-trading idealism and hardheaded business. With an eye on all the backward countries of the world, Stettinius said: "With our technique and know-how, it just isn't necessary for them to live poorly. I would not, personally, be doing this on a purely commercial basis."

To supply the capital and know-how, Stettinius formed Stettinius Associates with such big wheels as General Electric's Chairman Philip D. Reed, ex-Under Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew and Admiral William F. Halsey. They will raise $1,000,000 in capital to form the Liberia Co., jointly owned with the Liberian Government. This company, in turn, will form up to 20 different subsidiaries to develop Liberia's iron ore, cocoa, lumber and other resources.

Self-Help. One-fourth of the company's 1,000,000 shares of stock will be given outright to the Liberian Government; a tenth will go to endow the Liberian Educational Foundation. As each subsidiary develops, the foundation will set up an industrial training program within the new industry. As the foundation's income increases, it will finance the training of Liberians in U.S. medicine and technology and ultimately help create a University of Liberia.

Stettinius and several other sponsors of the Liberian venture are also associated with a little-known company, the World Commerce Corp., which has many similar world development schemes on its agenda. It has been quietly organizing since 1945. Like Stettinius Associates, the corporation has a paid-in capital of only $1,000,000. But it has unlimited capital resources among its potent U.S., British and Canadian backers.*

Like Stettinius Associates, World Commerce Corp. plans to provide capital equipment and technological know-how. It already has representatives in 47 countries and six partially owned subsidiaries in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Panama and the Philippines. To overcome the world dollar shortage, it has set up a complex system of bartering currencies and goods. The corporation provided the dollars to buy raw materials from Sweden for a British manufacturer, took payment in British goods. It also started a $3,000,000 cement plant in Jamaica with capital in English sterling, machinery and supplies from Canada and the U.S.

Like Ed Stettinius, the other backers of World Commerce Corp. refuse to believe that when a country is without dollars it must cease trading.

* Including the Mellon interests of Pittsburgh; Transamerica Corp. (Bank of America); Bache & Co.'s Frank T. Ryan; Glore, Forgan & Co.; London's Hambros Bank, Ltd. and Robert Benson & Co., Ltd. Besides Stettinius and Grew, the individuals include the wartime OSS head, Major General William J. Donovan; Willys-Overland's Chairman James D. Mooney; Atlas Corp.'s L. Boyd Hatch, and Sir William Stephenson, British industrialist.

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